Another Year Over and a New One's Just begun!

Well that was goodbye and in a lot of ways good riddance to 2007!

The year that gave us Gordon Brown as a prime minister when we hadnt even voted for him.

Madeleine McCann disappeared and divided the nation with their opinions on 'did they or didnt' regarding her parents. It was the year that Benazir Bhutto came back to her homeland of Pakistan only to be gunned down a few weeks later. It was the year that Northern Rock went t*ts up. It was the year of...rain....and more rain and more rain. Hull, Tewekesbury and Boscastle all flooded as the rain just didnt stop. In other countries however, heatwaves and no rain caused drought and bush fires especially in California.

It was the year that smoking was banned in public places. HORRAH! I can now have an evening out without coming home smelling like an ashtray and having a hoarse voice!

Lewis Hamilton missed out on his first F1 Championship title in the final race - and only in his rookie year!

We lost the Rugby World Cup to South Africa due to a dodgey judging decision.

Jose Mourinho was sacked by Chelsea's peasant king Abramovich.

We lost Evel Knievel, Colin McCrae (tragically young), Bob Woolmer and Anna Nicole Smith.

We very nearly lost Richard Hammond of Top Gear fame when he famously crashed a jet car.

We lost Grandstand.

We were yet again continually preached to about global warming and turning a light off here catching a bus there - like that's going to make a difference when China is increasingly churning out deadly smoke into the atmosphere and the South Americans are burning rain forests faster than you you can say Husqvarna Chain Saw!

St Pancras Train Station was re-opened after it's incredible refurbishment and I can personally confirm that it IS a complete masterpiece - a beautiful building, lovingly restored and modernised.

On more a more personal note it was the year that my very promising young dog Harvey's show career was ruined. A week before Crufts some ill-informed, ignorant rambler kicked Harvey in the head because he thought he was running at him instead of running past him - and this was yet another consequence of the never ending rain. I was trying to find higher and higher ground to get my dogs out of the mud so walked in places that I wouldnt usually run a setter ie narrow footpaths and not wide open spaces - an unfortunate series of events all round and as such have had a whole year with nothing to show while his sister and brothers all do well in the show ring and I have to miss a whole years dog showing.

My village also made the news with the MFD outbreak. A very sad time for farmers and the rural community alike all thanks to a research labs incompetence. The footpaths around the village are still closed and will be for a lot longer - FMD lives in the soil for a couple of years.

It was also the year that an EU and Government made decisions about things they know nothing about (as usual) and so decided to ban tail docking in traditionally docked dogs. I notice however that you can still cut a pigs tail off - hmmmm.......good, logical thinking!

Work was appalling with no-one caring for anyone else and everyone trying to stab people in the backs and point score against each other. The Indian influence is still biting and continues to take replace jobs many experienced and worthy colleagues with incompetence. The German influence is also still very apparent with most of the British Directors now being replaced by Germans. The last of which was the IT Chief whose idea the Indian offshoring was in the first place - but of course it's too late now - all the good staff and knowledgable, loyal colleagues have been made redundant. Ironically, something that's very difficult to do in Germany!

As the year drew to a close there was at last one piece of good news for me. Harvey my young, gorgeous, solemate is going to be the proud father of six puppies in the new year - and that is worth more to me than money (although obviously I will have a stud fee from this) and has almost blotted out all the bad things about 2007.

Welcome 2008 - lets hope it's a better year.

Happy Christmas

Well, we spent Christmas on our own this year - probably best after a very tiring stressful year. I had the most awesome presents. The best thing that Father Christmas brought me was this wonderful MacBook with widescreen which replaces my old and somewhat dilapidated iBook.

I also have a lovely digital photo frame which when you have so many pictures and no a lot of space is a brilliant piece of kit! I will load photo's onto the frame this evening!

The turkey was cooked to perfection, my home made Christmas pudding was yummy and the whole dinner went incredibly well - I even made my own gravy thanks to Jamie Oliver's advice on TV the other day.

Harvey's the Daddy!

The waiting and worrying is over. Raven is expecting a litter of six pups - due in the first week in January. So whatever happens now I can confidently offer Harvey at stud!

This is so exciting - cant wait to see the pups!

Brussels, Belgium and not a bun or a sprout in sight!

So yet another early morning to get to somewhere I'm not sure that I want to go to! I HATE getting up in the middle of the night. It takes at least four hours before I am not grouchy and just hoep that when I get there it's all worth it. I neednt have worried, I had a great time. We travelled over there with our friends and colleagues from work, spent most of the morning up until lunch with them and then went out own ways.




We bumped into the procession that celebrates the mannequin pis and they were changing his outfit to the Santa Cluas outfit. It was loud, colourful and great fun!

Bought chocolates and loads of beer then went back to our hotel - a lovely five star hotel. Totally loved it there.

It's a bit of a grubby place with loads of graffiti and no HSE at all but I liked it and had a wonderful weekend away.

The other point worth mentioning is the refurb of St Pancras. It looks wonderful and although its now a pain to have to go from Waterloo to St Pancras the speed of the train almost makes up for it. We reached Belgium in just under two hours!

Remerberance Sunday - We MUST remember them

It is with great pride on this day of reflection and rememberance that I reflect on my own fathers contribution to the second world war.

My father, Donald Spencer Glaysher was just 17 when he signed up to join the RAF. He initially wanted to be a rear gunner in a Lancaster bomber but due to low blood pressure (which of course would mean he would pass out when pulling G) he joined the strategic safety dept. The other irony of my father having low blood pressure is that if he had been a rear gunner then I probably wouldnt be here - they had a life expectancy of five missions!!

He served in Africa (mainly Sudan and Egypt) and was awarded the Africa Star. He went out there a boy and came back seven years later a man.

Harvey the Stud!

Could there be some good news on the Horizon. I've been so despondant lately that I've not even felt like entering anything in my blog as life just seems so mundane recently. Today however I hope and pray that something has changed and some luck has come my way. A Gordon Setter bitch (wont say who just yet) was brought over for Harvey to mate. Neither of them had been mated before so we were both taking a bit of a risk - contrary to common belief it's not that easy to mate dogs to order - if they escape from the garden ironically its always a lot easier :)

Anyway, my nerves were raw, I was so full of anticipation - I so wanted this to work out and it did .......and how. Harvey was the perfect gentleman, a textbook mating. I've asisted in the mating of quite a few dogs in my time and I have to say that he was even more controlled and gentle than any experienced stud. I am so proud of him even though it is how I thought he'd be - he IS after all a complete gentleman so I shouldnt have worried about his behaviour with the ladies.

So now it's wait and see time. It's going to be a nerve racking few weeks firstly to discover if there are any live pups inside and then of course the birth - which will be on the 10th - 12th of January. I have everything crossed!!

American Wildlife

As anyone who has ever read this blog will realise, I love nature, wildlife both flora and fauna. In fact one of my earliest memories was thumbing through the nature section at the back of the AA drivers manual. I couldnt tell you what seven times nine was but my god I could tell you the difference between your tufted vetch and your common knapweed!

So it seems apt that on this last blog for the 2007 holiday I write a list of all the wildlife I can recall seeing while I was in California.

muir woods
moose
blue jay
chipmunk
ladybugs
black tailed deer
elephant seal
sea lions of pier 39
woodpecker (maybe the Ladder-backed?)
turkey
Californian condor
butterfly
American white ibis
Californian Ground Squirrel
mule deer

20 years after the Great Storm!

It's hard to believe that it's 20 years ago I bought my first house - how do I remember? Because nine weeks later the great storm hit and we had no water, no power and the fences had fallen down so how to keep two dogs in the graden!

It was a nightmare. We tried to get to work but being 22 miles away from work and in the epi-centre of the storm we shouldnt have bothered. It took seven hours to get to work and then of course we were told to go home (dont forget this was in the days before internet access and mobile phones - hard to believe eh?) It was a true nightmare and now whenever there is a lot of wind and rain in the night I cant sleep because I think that another storm is on it's way!

our last night in LA

This is our last day in the US and to be honest we are both ready to go home and in my case I cant wait to see and hug Harvey. For our last evening we went to the Napa Rose (Suzette's recommendation). This is a restaurant within the Disney complex next to the Calif adventure theme park. I wasnt ready for the shock of just how up-market this part of Anaheim has become. This wasnt or isnt the old Anaheim I was used to. The hotel is incredibly decadent and the restaurant was wonderful. Decorated on the Rennie Macintosh style it oozed quality but without being pretentious. The wine was the best I've probably ever had and the food was second to none. I had the most amazing pork chop with braised red cabbage and pear puree and Alan had the most amazing steak. I could get used to this kind of quality! Alan be warned ;)

...and so back to the bar

after a day out in the Californian Adventure we went back to the bar at our hotel to have a meal and a few nightcaps with Suzette and Lori. The last time we will see these guys for a while - even though we will keep in contact by email.